Vol. 4 No. lo 



TORREYA 



October, 1904 



^THE EARLY WRITERS ON FERNS AND THEIR 

 COLLECTIONS — III. W. J. Hooker, 1785-1865 



By L. M. Underwood 



Following the period of J. E. Smith, Swartz, and Willdenow, 

 and partly contemporaneous with it, were two or three men of 

 minor rank in systematic fern study and yet men who did real 

 and lasting work, both in extending the genera of ferns and in 

 describing unknown species. Among these was the distinguished 

 keeper of the botanical department of the British Museum, Rob- 

 ert Brown (1773-1858) whose keen understanding of generic 

 relations among ferns will ever cause us to lament that his pub- 

 lications on the fern system were so limited and incomplete. 

 Bory de St. Vincent (1780- 1846) also published a number of 

 fern genera as did also Link, of Berlin (1767-185 i). But in the 

 extent of published work, all of these were surpassed by Des- 

 vaux (1 784-1 8 56) professor of botany at Angers, whose syn- 

 opsis (1827), the forerunner of modern generic limitations, is one 

 of the too-often neglected but valuable works of the fern sys- 

 tematist of to-day. Desvaux's diagnoses are unfortunately too 

 brief, and his types are often difficult to trace in the Museum of 

 the Jardin des Plantes, but his views were usually rational and 

 as the time goes on his species will be found to compare favor- 

 ably with those established by others of this period. 



In order better to orient the reader with regard to the various 

 periods of systematic fern study we append the following chrono- 

 logical table : 



[Vol. 4, No. 9, of ToRREY/V, comprising pages 129-144, was issued September 

 30, 1904. J 



14.") 



